Northwest watch. Public affairs.

Lawmakers To Take Long, Close Look At School Problems In City, Suburbs

September 02, 1993|By Susan Kuczka, Tribune Staff Writer.

The budget crisis facing the Chicago Public Schools is by no means a new problem.

But a freshman legislator from Elgin is leading an effort to find new funding solutions not only for Chicago's public schools but for public schools throughout Illinois.

And Rep. Douglas L. Hoeft (R-Elgin) is in a unique position to lead such an effort. He joined the legislature after serving as Kane County's regional school superintendent for six years.

Hoeft, who has a doctorate in education administration, also spent 10 years at Elgin High School, and he taught one year in the Chicago public school system.

It is with that background that Hoeft has asked his Republican and Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate to join him on a fact-finding mission next week.

The purpose of the mission, Hoeft said, will be to analyze the funding problems facing not only the Chicago Board of Education but smaller school districts on a smaller scale.

To illustrate the similarities, Hoeft has two stops planned for a fact-finding delegation of suburban lawmakers. Those expected to attend include Reps. Ann Hughes (R-Woodstock), Patricia Reid Lundner (R-Aurora), and Al Salvi (R-Libertyville), and Sens. David N. Barkhausen (R-Lake Bluff), William E. Peterson (R-Long Grove), and Steven J. Rauschenberger (R-Elgin).

The lawmakers' first stop will be to the superintendent's office at Elgin Unit School District 46. The second will be to the superintendent's office for Chicago School District 299.

The Elgin school district has 30,000 students, compared with 411,000 in the Chicago public school system. But despite the districts' disparity in size, Hoeft says the two are facing many of the same funding problems.

For instance, while Chicago faces an estimated $400 million accumulated debt and Elgin faces a $29 million debt, the accumulated debt per student is $976 for Chicago and $969 for Elgin.

There are some stark differences, however, For instance, while Chicago spends about $5,675 per student through the school year, Elgin spends $4,875-an $800 difference that Hoeft said he would like to know more about before he approves any special funding mechanisms for Chicago.

A special session of the Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to begin Thursday to help bail out the city's schools.

"There has to be a reason why that district is spending $800 more per student than the other," said Hoeft, whose fact-finding trip is scheduled for Tuesday. "That's the kind of question I want raised.

"There's so much myth and lore about Chicago school statistics. I want to get some real hard-core facts so we can make some decisions on funding."

Hoeft said before he supports any quick-fix solutions to Chicago's school funding problems, he wants long-term answers not only to the problems of Chicago but of financially troubled schools statewide.

"The Elgin public schools face the same fiscal problems that virtually a hundred school districts are suffering," Hoeft said. "I want to make sure that when the legislature addresses the Chicago problem, they also address the problems faced by other school districts in the state."

Tax villians: Jim Tobin, president of National Taxpayers of Illinois, spends a lot of time, and money, faxing news releases to keep reporters on top of how Illinois lawmakers are spending our money.

And recently, Tobin faxed a news release calling freshmen Reps. Carolyn Krause (R-Mt. Prospect) and Rosemary Mulligan (R-Des Plaines) "Tax Villains of the Month" for joining the legislature in voting to make permanent the .25 percent income tax surcharge.

But as Krause and Mulligan tell it, to vote any other way would have jeopardized funding for a wide range of essential services and programs now provided by the state.

"When you weighed it all together, I felt that government would have really shut down because of the huge hole that would have resulted from a failure to move forward," Krause said.

Of course, a shutdown of government could be the only thing that would stop the NTU fax machine.